halofanonfandomcom-20200223-history
Oscar Sarif
Doctor Oscar Harold Sarif is a prominent and controversial figure in the field of artificial intelligence, having written many papers on theoretical seed AI, the development of AI without the need for brain-mapping, and nano-computation. He become slavishly obsessed with the concept of self improving artificial intelligence as a student, spending much of his young adulthood thinking on this impossibility. However, the Human-Covenant War had broken out as he finished his collegiate years. Sarif was conscripted into the Marines, and rushed to the front lines on Harvest. He suffered the horrors of war for two tours before being honorably discharged, due to the loss of his left arm during the Battle of Paris IV. After his service, he eagerly resumed his work in the field of artificial intelligence, making leaps in dumb AI technology. As his work became more prominent, he was selected by ONI to develop next generation combat drones. Twenty years of work would result in the KABUKI-class infantry drones. The neural network that linked the KABUKI AIs together had created a very, very, very simple seed artificial intelligence. Sarif's academic and professional life had drawn the interest of an independent group of scientists calling themselves the Argonauts. He graciously accepted the offer, and worked with a team of likeminded researchers, to develop a truly recursively self-improving intelligence. Early Life Oscar Sarif was born in Sun Yang Hospital on the O'Neill habitat Armitage, floating over the gas giant Ferdinand. Johnathan Sarif and Haley Neumann were both humble people, Johnathan being a helium-3 miner, and Haley an EVA technician. Both of them imparted the values of diligence and humility onto their child. Oscar was never one to interact with his peers as a youth, preferring to gaze out of portholes at the stars beyond. This earned him a reputation of being an eccentric and antisocial as a child. As a result, he was often the butt of pranks and jabs from his classmates and even a few lighthearted ones from his parents. If these jokes had any effect on the young Oscar, he didn't show it. When he matured into a young man, he grew more social, and enjoyed the company of his group of companions. While far from a social butterfly, he was also far from being the bizarre shut-in he was during his childhood. Though free time was often spent with his friends, Oscar never forgot about his stars, and was entranced by mathematics and science during his preadolescence. He excelled at these subjects, and expressed an interest in astronomy and astrophysics when he grew older. His first encounter with an artificial intelligence was at a museum. A nonfunctional one was being used as an exhibit, with many of it's internals being on display. The now teenage Oscar quickly grasped the fundamental mechanisms of the intelligence at a basic level, and yearned to learn about the system's intricacies. From here, he abandoned his former dreams of astronomy and adapted programming as his preferred field of study. His exemplary academic performance had earned him a place at Fujikawa Technical Institute, one of the best institutions on the habitat, and the leading institute for machine learning and mathematics. It was here that the concept of self-improving artificial intelligence was planet in Oscar's mind. While many of his classmates and professors had decried his ideas, he continued undeterred, later coming to the conclusion that an artificial intelligence would require over two million square kilometers of space for hardware if it was to achieve an iteration that was significantly more intelligent than the average learned human. While painfully aware of the impossibility of such an intelligence being constructed with modern day technology, he remained undaunted, and was convinced that modern day smart AI were only the stepping stones to true seed AI. Service Oscar was a subpar soldier. Physically, he was weaker than his comrades, and was incapable of running for long periods of time. Combined with the fact that he was conscripted, and his distance form the epicenter of the war, he lacked the motivation or fervor present in other members of his unit. He finished basic training with difficulty, and was berated and penalized multiple times during the ordeal. Private First Class Sarif was assigned to a mechanized infantry company, aboard the Paris-class Heavy Frigate Fly Me to The Moon. The frigate and her complement were slated to participate in the Battle of Paris IV. Sarif was spared the brutality of the initial waves dispatched to the surface of the planet, though the horror stories were enough to terrify him before he even saw combat. This severely hampered his effectiveness during combat, being remarkably inaccurate while under fire. While he showed signs of mental trauma during the intense first firefights, he would become a hardened killer by the end of the day. Post Service Research One of Sarif's first major accomplishments was the development of the Sockpuppet core. This device would allow hypothetically any intelligence to remotely operate an unmanned drone frame. This would give AIs an unprecedented level of mobility, allowing scientific intelligences to be more proactive in their research. As a military asset, the Sockpuppet would allow AI to operate without having to put advanced and expensive hardware at risk in combat, as well as allowing drone pilots to be retrained to operate more advanced vehicles, such as Longswords and Shortswords. The Sockpuppet system ran into a handful of problems that would prevent it from being deployed in time for the Human-Covenant War. Primarily, the technology at the time did not allow for a communication system that was secure enough, and contained enough bandwidth to accommodate any type of AI, and even after the necessary technology was developed, it was still quite expensive. The first functional prototype of a Sockpuppet core was constructed in March of 2556, and fitted to a F-99 Wombat Drone Fighter. The dumb AI pilot had performed up to standards, being able to perform aerial reconnaissance and ground attack roles at an acceptable level. When a 'shot-down' simulation was activated, the dumb AI had successfully 'ejected', and transmitted itself safely back to it's holotank. Sarif's role in the project was critical, as he was to ensure the stability of the artificial intelligence as it transmitted itself to and from the drone frame, as well as when it inhabited said frame. This proved difficult, as the hardware aboard the drone was far, far from enough to accommodate all of a smart AI's processes, as was intended. The constant mobility of processes between two different cores also proved too strenuous for the complexity of smart AIs. Thus Sarif went with the path of least resistance, and decided to design the Sockpuppet to accommodate simpler artificial intelligences, while this drew him much ire from his colleagues, due to his decision for a simple solution rather than aiming for perfection. KABUKI Work with the Argonauts Additional Notes He condemned the famous transhumanist book, Humanity Rising. He also called the author, another scientist by the name of Henry Crushaw 'a hack undeserving of his doctorate', for Crushaw's radical human supremacist views and ham-handed political ideas.